i hope you like the next book, too — The Rules for Hearts, coming spring 2007. :)

oh, and as for the red flowers…eek, i am so bad with botany, i do not know.

other readers, can you help??

I lost count of how many times the book both made my heart clench or laugh out loud. It was truly wonderful reading it, and I especially enjoyed the happy ending. The part where Nic writes,

“[N]o soap operas would have a love affair between girls as a storyline, unless one of us died tragically in a car crash, and then the other one was comforted in her grief by some charming young man.”

made me laugh wryly, as it’s so depressingly true. The fact that Empress of the World ended happily was such a nice change from all the other books and movies I’ve seen where the poor lesbians either end up dead or break up and the book ends with them never speaking to each other again. It’s almost as if there’s an unspoken rule for fiction: god forbid the gays have a happy ending. Sometimes I wonder if it’s a sort of subconscious act on the writer’s part; karmic payback for the characters being a lesbians.

Your book is wonderful, though. I loved your style of writing, I loved your characters (even the ones who were meant to be antagonists, as I recognized them from my experiences and I loved them for ringing true), and I loved the way you played everything out. Nothing struck me as unrealistic or awkward.

I realize that I’m rambling; to sum it all up, I loved Empress of the World, and it brought a smile to my face when I read that you were working on a sequel.

Thank you so very, very much for writing.

—Alena

P.S. The pictures are lovely. If you don’t mind me asking, what sort of flowers are the red ones?

But seriously, hope all goes well. Get some good writing done. Tell your hubby I have been reading his idiot’s guide to graphic novels and really enjoying it. Got it at the new B&N in the Crackamyass Town Center.